Kay Aldridge

Born: 1917-07-09

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Katharine Gratten Aldridge (July 9, 1917 – January 12, 1995) was an American actress and model, best known for playing feisty and imperiled heroines in black-and-white serials during the 1940s. A notable role was as Nyoka Gordon in Perils of Nyoka. Aldridge was born on July 9, 1917 in Tallahassee, Florida. Her father was a surveyor and her mother was an artist and writer. After attending her first year of high school in Westminster, Maryland, she enrolled in St. Mary's Female Seminary (now St. Mary's College of Maryland) in St. Mary's City, Maryland. While at St. Mary's, she acted in plays, played basketball, and was a member of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority. Following her high school graduation in 1934, Aldridge found work with the John Powers modeling agency in New York. She appeared on the covers of magazines such as Life, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and Look. In 1937, Aldridge was chosen as one of the ten most photographed girls in the world, and was selected to go to Hollywood to appear in the United Artists film Vogues of 1938. In 1939 she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, and in the next few years landed a number of minor and largely decorative roles, credited as Katherine Aldridge. The films she made during this period include Shooting High (1940) playing Evelyn Trent, Sailor's Lady (1940) playing Georgine, Down Argentine Way (1940) playing Helen Carson, and Dead Men Tell (1941) playing Laura Thursday. She was among the actresses screen tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. After her contract with 20th Century Fox expired in 1941, she was approach by Republic Pictures to star in an upcoming film serial. Although she considered serial work a "comedown" from being a featured player at Fox, she accepted the offer because it offered her a lead role and a salary of about $650 a week, good money at the time. Her first serial for Republic was Perils of Nyoka (1942), which offered dramatic cliffhanger scenes at the end of each episode. She retired from acting in 1945. Aldridge was married three times: to Arthur Cameron from 1945 to 1954, to Richard Derby Tucker from 1956 until his death in 1979, and lastly to Harry Nasland until his death in 1988. In her later years she lived in Camden, Maine, and was a locally renowned hostess. Aldridge died of a heart attack on January 12, 1995 in Rockport, Maine. She is interred at Sea View Cemetery in Rockport, Maine.


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Rosalie

as Lady in Waiting (uncredited)
Released: 1937-12-24

West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an...

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Down Argentine Way

as Helen Carson
Released: 1940-10-11

The story—in which an American heiress on holiday in South America falls in love with an...

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The Phantom of 42nd Street

as Claudia Moore
Released: 1945-05-02

A theatre critic teams up with a cop to investigate the murder of a Broadway actor.

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Du Barry was a Lady

as Mrs. McGowan
Released: 1943-08-13

Hat check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly. May, however, is in love with...

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The Man Who Walked Alone

as Wilhelmina Hammond
Released: 1945-03-15

A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman...

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Louisiana Purchase

as Louisiana Belle
Released: 1941-12-31

A bumbling senator investigating graft in Louisiana is the target of a scheme involving a...

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Dead Men Tell

as (as Katharine Aldridge) Laura Parks aka Laura Thursday
Released: 1941-03-28

When the elderly woman sponsoring a treasure hunt is murdered on board her docked ship, Charlie...

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Shooting High

as Evelyn Trent
Released: 1940-04-25

A movie company making a film about a famous sheriff hires his grandson as a stand-in for the lead.

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Something to Shout About

as Show Girl
Released: 1943-02-25

A press agent, a composer and a landlord of a theatrical boardinghouse revive vaudeville on...

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Sailor's Lady

as Georgine (as Katharine Aldridge)
Released: 1940-07-05

Sailor is going to marry his girlfriend when he returns, but she becomes foster mother to baby...

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Navy Blues

as Navy Blues Sextet Member (as Katharine Aldridge)
Released: 1941-09-13

On a layover in Hawaii two conniving Navy seamen borrow money to lay down bets that their ship...

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Haunted Harbor

as Patricia Harding
Released: 1944-08-26

A sea captain about to be hanged for a murder he didn't commit is rescued from the gallows by...

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Daredevils of the West

as June Foster
Released: 1943-05-01

A gang of land-grabbers tries to prevent safe passage of the Foster Stage Company through...

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You're in the Army Now

as Navy Blues Sextette Member
Released: 1941-12-25

Incompetent door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen become enlisted without their knowledge.

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Vogues of 1938

as Katherine - a Model
Released: 1937-08-18

An early Technicolor musical that concentrates on the fashions of the late 1930s, this film was...

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Free, Blonde and 21

as Adelaide Sinclair (as Katherine Aldridge)
Released: 1940-03-28

Stories of women who live in an all-women hotel. One (Bari) works hard and marries a...

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Here I Am a Stranger

as Lillian Bennett
Released: 1939-09-29

The story of a young man's discovery of his father.

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The Girl from Avenue A

as Lucy
Released: 1940-08-09

A tough girl raised in the streets finds that her dialect and manners are helpful as source...

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Girl in 313

as Sarah Sorrell (as Katherine Aldridge)
Released: 1940-05-31

A priceless necklace goes missing at a plush party. Police close in on the jewel thieves but is...

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Perils of Nyoka

as Nyoka Gordon
Released: 1942-06-27

Professor Campbell's expedition into the hills of Libya obtains a papyrus which might reveal the...

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Golden Hoofs

as Cornelia Hunt
Released: 1941-02-14

A teenage horse trainer fears she'll lose her beloved horses when the stables where she works is...

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